JMB and MC in Malaysia: Who Manages Your Condo, Owners’ Meetings, Voting Rights and the Strata Management Tribunal

When you buy a condo in Malaysia you buy more than your own unit: you also own a share of the building’s common property. Who manages the building, how the service charges are set and how much say you have are all laid down in the Strata Management Act 2013. Management passes through three stages: the developer, then the JMB, then the MC.

Three stages: who is in charge?

The JMB is dissolved three months after the MC’s first meeting and must hand its balances and records to the MC within one month (s.27). If the MC comes into existence before the JMB’s first meeting, no JMB is formed (s.17(5)).

What if the developer does not call the JMB meeting?

• Convening the JMB’s first annual general meeting is the developer’s duty; failing to do so is an offence carrying a fine of up to RM250,000 or up to three years’ imprisonment (s.18(2)).
• The developer must give every purchaser at least 14 days’ written notice and display it prominently in the development (s.18(3)).
• At the meeting it must table a budget for the next 12 months of maintenance (s.18(4)).
• If it misses the deadline, the Commissioner of Buildings at the local authority may appoint someone to convene the meeting at the developer’s expense (s.18(5)).

What the developer must hand over to the JMB

Before its management period ends, the developer must hand over (s.15):

• the balances of the maintenance account and the sinking fund account;
• the management office, all assets and the audited accounts;
• the approved plans, maintenance contracts and the list of contractors;
• warranties, manuals and technical information for the common property;
• the register of parcel owners and the originals of all insurance policies.

Failing to do so is also an offence, with the same maximum of RM250,000 or three years (s.15(4)).

How many votes do you have?

• On a show of hands: one vote per parcel.
• On a poll: votes follow your parcel’s share units, the same units that set your share of the service charges.
• Arrears bar you from voting: a proprietor with charges, sinking fund contributions or other sums in arrears on the seventh day before the meeting cannot vote (Second Schedule, para 21, for the MC stage).

Our guide to how the maintenance fee is calculated shows how share units feed into the charges.

Who to turn to in a dispute

You can file with the Strata Management Tribunal. Key points:

• Claim limit: RM250,000 (s.105).
• Who may file: developers, purchasers, proprietors, JMBs, MCs, managing agents and others (s.107).
• Usually no lawyers: unless the case involves complex points of law (s.110).
• What it can hear includes recovery of charges, orders to convene a meeting, setting aside resolutions passed in breach of the Act, varying the late payment interest rate, varying the amount insured, compelling the supply of information and documents, and disputes over the cost of repairing defects (Fourth Schedule, Part 1).
• Failing to comply with an award is an offence carrying a fine of up to RM250,000 or up to three years’ imprisonment (s.123).

Related

• How the maintenance fee is calculated
• Maintenance fee and sinking fund in Malaysia
• Home insurance after buying

Sources

1. Strata Management Act 2013 (Act 757), ss.15, 17, 18, 27, 46, 57, 105, 107, 110 and 123, Second Schedule para 21, Fourth Schedule (copy hosted by Perbadanan Putrajaya). Document

The above reflects the Act. Each project’s management stage and arrangements depend on its own circumstances. Last verified: 12 October 2026.